Posts tagged mit

It's not always easy to tell when your stress levels are through the roof, and you may not always want to break out a heart rate sensor just to find out when it's time to relax. You might not have to, if researchers at Georgia Tech and MIT have their way; they've developed BioGlass, an Android app...

We're interrupting your regularly scheduled programming full of cute, service robots to bring you the latest update on Boston Dynamics' terrifying humanoid machine: Atlas. A group of MIT researchers have been working to refine their Atlas unit's capabilities since 2013 for DARPA's Robotics Challen...

Fall's nearly here and so is the next Engadget Expand event. On November 7th and 8th, we'll once again take over New York City's Javits Center North to let you experience the future of technology and hear from the leading minds in the industry. ...

Nuclear energy could have curbed C02 emissions long ago if not for one problem: the waste is toxic for over 100,000 years. That's quite a commitment for humanity, but Hitachi thinks it has the answer: burn the spent fuel in small reactors to generate more power. That would produce manageable waste...

Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read.
Can Blossom's MIT-Enhanced Brew Win Over Skeptical Baristas?
by Danielle S...

Folding robots are nothing new, but scientists from Harvard and MIT have taken it to the next level, by designing one that assembles itself and walks away to do its job with zero human input. The robots start out as a flat sheet of paper and polystyrene plastic (which you most likely know as Shrin...

You may want to be careful about the conversations you hold in the future; if you're near a window, someone might be listening in. A team of researchers from Adobe, Microsoft and MIT have developed a visual microphone algorithm that picks up audio by looking for microscopic vibrations in video foo...

Engadgeteers spend a lot of their day staring at a screen, so it's no surprise that nearly all of us are blind without glasses or contact lenses. But wouldn't it be great if we could give our eyes a break and just stare at the screen without the aid of corrective lenses? That's the idea behind an ...

It's happened to all of us: you queue up a print job, your old desk printer starts up and it unceremoniously jams halfway through. It's easy enough to resume a botched print job when you're dealing with paper, but what do you do when you're printing in 3D? A small team of MIT students may have an ...

Have you ever wondered if five fingers is really enough? The folks at MIT have. Researchers in the institute's department of mechanical engineering have created a robotic glove that adds two additional digits to the standard human claw, positioning two long fingers on either side of the hand. It's...

Water is pretty wild when you think about it: all of its three states of matter are consumable by humans, and one in particular can even give off electrical power. A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has discovered that when water condenses on and spontaneously jumps back and forth...

Sorry, that's not a 3D-printed ice cream cone, Mr. President.
Sure, those 3D printers that can output confectionery creations in sugar, chocolate and other edible substances are great, but a trio of MIT students have upped the awesome. Using a household Cuisinart ice cream maker and a Solidoodle ...

Thermoelectrics -- which use wasted heat to generate electricity -- could get a lot more interesting thanks to a company called Alphabet Energy. It's set to commercialize tetrahedrite, a metal that more than doubles the efficiency of current tech for as little as a fiftieth the cost. Thermoelectri...

Pro photographers can spend ages setting up lighting for a shoot. That work may quickly go out the window if the subject moves, however, and an assistant won't always be there to help. Thankfully, MIT researchers have devised a clever solution to the problem: meet Litrobot, an aerial lighting dron...

Robots tend to be either very rigid or very soft, but neither extreme is ideal; ideally, machines could both squish themselves into tight spaces and remain sturdy for strength-dependent tasks. They just might, thanks to a team-up between MIT and Google's Boston Dynamics. The two have developed a c...

Golf balls are dimpled for a reason -- they sail through the air just slowly enough that the uneven surface reduces drag, helping them fly farther than they might otherwise. Wouldn't it be nice if your car could get that kind of aerodynamic boost? It might, if MIT's newly developed morphable surfa...

Thought experiment time, folks: what would do you if you wanted to warm up a few people in a big, chilly room? Prevailing logic says to crank up the heat, but let's be honest here: sometimes the prevailing logic sucks. The folks from MIT's Senseable City Lab project have cooked up a more efficient...

Researchers from MIT and Lawrence Livermore have created a new class of materials with the same density as aerogels (aka frozen smoke) but 10,000 times stiffer. Called micro-architected metamaterials, they can withstand 160,000 times their own weight, making them ideal for load-bearing, weight-sen...

If you travel often, you know that it's hard to socialize at hotels; short of a chance encounter, you'll probably end up drinking at the bar by yourself. MIT and Marriott may have a better solution in store with their Six Degrees app. The mobile software uses LinkedIn to find connections between y...

Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of scientists (and politicians) as it could produce limitless free energy without nasty consequences like meltdowns and radioactive waste. Though nobody's been able to build a reactor that produces more energy than it consumes (except arguably one time), scientists...